


How You Handle It

by 1000PaperCranes



Category: Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers: Prime, Transformers: Rescue Bots, Transformers: Rescue Bots Academy (Cartoon)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Dani is there I promise, Flashbacks, Gen, Head Injury, Life Changing Event, No Beta: We die like mne, Primarily Rescue Bots Academy, Tough Love, What the Heck Happened to Kade?, bridging the gap, everyone makes mistakes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-01
Updated: 2019-04-05
Packaged: 2019-12-30 13:44:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,445
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18316424
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/1000PaperCranes/pseuds/1000PaperCranes
Summary: It's not that you made a mistake, it's how you handle it that's important.Of course, Heatwave didn't count on making the same mistake twice.  He hasgotto stop falling from high places.





	1. Getting Back on the Horse, and Falling Off Again

**Author's Note:**

> Heatwave never did tell the recruits about his own mistakes. All of them were important learning experiences, he's sure, even if only in how to handle his temper. There are only a few he remembers and right now only one comes to mind. How can he tell the recruits about something so... terrible? They're sparklings, _kids_ , now isn't the time to discourage them. Maybe someday, when he doesn't need their respect, but not today. They'll just have to learn from their own mistakes.

Heatwave powered up with a scream, a small hand tightly grasping his digits.  “Professor Heatwave?” Whirl’s voice shook with urgency.  “Don’t move, sir.  You might be damaged.”

Damaged?  Slag his damage!  “Where’s Kade?”  Heatwave could still feel the heat of Kade’s body against his palm and chest plates.  He struggled to sit up, but Boulder suddenly appeared, pressing Heatwave back to the ground.  “Boulder, where’s Kade?”  He looked up, optics desperately wide, as the recruits mumbled questions to each other.  “I had him!  I swear I had him!  Where is he?”

Boulder looked up to the sky.  “Blades?”

The sky, of course, was clear.  There was no sign of Blades or Kade.  “Damnit, Boulder!  Answer me!”

Turning back to his leader, Boulder spoke as calmly as possible.  “You fell, Heatwave.  Kade was never here.”

Heatwave struggled violently against the heavier bot.  “Slag it, Boulder!  I was holding him!  We have to find him!  He could be hurt!”

Fixing him with empathetic optics, Boulder sighed.  “He’s on Spray Isle, Heatwave.  You hit your head and had a nightmare.”

“No…” Heatwave denied, but he was no longer sure.

“You dropped a seal when the cliffside gave way.  It landed in the water, you landed on the rocks.  Kade is fine.”

“That— That…”  That wasn’t what Heatwave remembered.  They’d been clearing a rock slide…  _“Wow, Ginna.  That’s some bad Jenga,” Kade had said with a serious look at the entrapped car.  “Let’s peel the roof—”_

_Heatwave picked the fireman up.  “We’re wasting time.”  They needed to get Virginia out of here before more rocks fell.  He lifted the large boulder Kade had been standing on, the one that was blocking the driver’s side door._

_Kade and Virginia screamed as the slide gave way, taking the guardrail, the car, and Heatwave with it.  Heatwave tucked Kade against his chest plates and put his chasse between the human and the rocky ground._  

That was the last thing Heatwave remembered before waking up.  He tried to get up again, but Boulder’s slackened grip instantly became immovable.  “I must have dropped him!  _Primus in the Pit_ , Boulder!  He’s here somewhere!”

Boulder’s face went stern.  “You did drop him.”  Heatwave felt the Energon drain from his body.  No.  Why had they lied to him?  _No._   “Ten months ago.  You were up Cliffside Drive with Kade ten months ago to clear a rock slide.  The ground gave way and you fell, _ten months ago_.  Kade was paralyzed.  He hasn’t been here for _ten months._ ”

Kade was— Kade was— It all came flooding back to Heatwave.  Kade was paralyzed and it was his fault.  The man hated him now.  They hadn’t spoken since.  He closed his eyes.  “Virginia…”

“Died,” Boulder confirmed mercilessly.

Heatwave remembered.  He remembered Dani arriving on the scene with Doc McSwain.  Remembered the Doctor’s anguished sobs as she chose Kade to save over her own daughter.  Heatwave himself had been terribly damaged, unable to move or even avert his optics.  He’d watched it all, Kade on the ground between the Doctor and his sister; Charlie and Graham pulling Virginia from the car and laying her on the grass, Chase and Boulder shoring up the rockface to keep it from falling on the humans.  It had taken Heatwave a rather long time to realize he couldn’t see Blades because the bot was trying to stabilize Heatwave himself.  He would never forget the strange gasping sounds Virginia McSwain had made as she died, or the abject worry in Kade’s voice when he heard them and called out to her.

Heatwave opened his eyes, but the memory didn’t fade.  “Boulder, Kade _hates_ me.”

The green bot’s face finally softened.  “No, he doesn’t.”

“It was _my_ fault.”  Heatwave could see the placation forming, but at that moment Boulder turned away.  Heatwave heard rotors nearing the ground.  Heard what must have been Blades landing.

“BOULDER!”  Heatwave’s spark froze in his chest.  The urgent voice yelled out again, “BOULDER! CHASE!” 

Heatwave could not do this.  

Kade was going to kill him.


	2. Getting Back in the Saddle and Learning to Ride

“Chase, what happened?” a red-haired human asked as Blades handed him to the police bot.

The recruits huddled together, transfixed. 

“Who is that?” Whirl asked, trying to be quiet.

“What I want to know,” Medix said in a perfectly normal voice as it was clear everyone had forgotten about them, “is why Heatwave isn’t making any sense.”

“Shut up,” Wedge hissed.

“We can’t hear,” Hot Shot agreed, and this day officially could not get any stranger.

“Okay, put me down,” the redhead said.  They had all missed Chase’s explanation.  Of course, they had watched the entire scene unfold, from the moment they failed the rescue and forced Heatwave to scale a cliff, right up until now.

“Where?” Chase asked, the obvious ‘on the ground’ apparently not specific enough.

“Right on his big dumb chest.”

“Stay there,” Boulder ordered his leader.  “You might be damaged.”  He let go and waited a moment before backing away.  Chase sat the man directly on Heatwave’s rescue bot emblem.

The redhead grinned.  “You have got to stop falling off cliffs.”

“Kade?” Heatwave asked, mystified. 

“Primus, you are so stupid.”  Kade allowed Heatwave to enclose his body in one comparatively huge fist and did not scold him for sitting up.  “Gravity happens.  Did you really think I’d wait until I got my life perfect to start blaming you?”

Heatwave cracked a sheepish smile.  “No.”

“Damn right!”  Kade’s gray eyes were full of mirth and life.  “Are you finally going to stop avoiding me?”

“I haven’t been avoiding you!”

“Liar, liar, pants on fire,” Kade said, pronouncing each word with unnecessary force.

“I don’t wear pants.”

“You know exactly what that means.”

Despite the abrasiveness, the two were grinning fit to crack. 

Heatwave shifted, cradling the human in both hands.  “Perfect life, huh?”

Kade shrugged.  “Well, now that you’re talking to me again, yeah.”  Kade broke Heatwave’s gaze, his cheeks coloring.

Heatwave’s optics became a bit wistful.  “I’ve been a real scraplet, huh?”  Kade gave him a look that very clearly said ‘no duh’.  “What did I miss?”

“New job, new baby.  Same wife though, so not everything.”

“Uh… wife?”  Heatwave winced.  “I thought you and Hayley broke up?”

Kade blinked incredulously at him.  Suddenly his face cleared.  “Oh!  Memory core damage.”  He smiled understandingly.  “Yes, Hayley and I broke up.”  He wiggled his fingers, a gold ring glinting in the sunlight.  “So… New wife, New job, New baby, you missed everything, I’ll introduce you.”  He looked at the ring on his hand like he couldn’t believe it was real.  “We made a baby, Heatwave,” he whispered, voice laden with awe.  He grinned up at the firebot.  “She’s so friggin’ cute, you’re gonna love her.”

“Yes, he will,” Chase interrupted.  He moved the humans to a chair that was mostly wheels, then pressed his helm to Heatwave’s.

The recruits stared at the display in shock.  Kade wolf whistled.

Spinning his chair around, the man rolled himself toward the recruits.  “Hey, baby bots!”

“Kade,” Cody called, “Be nice.”  The recruits looked at him, they hadn’t even realized he was there.  Cody himself was walking away from the humans of the Griffin Rock rescue team.

“I’m always nice,” Kade teased back, a subtle undercurrent of something tart and wary in his voice.

They reached the group of young bots at the same time.  “Yeah,” Cody smiled indulgently, ruffling the man’s short red hair, “You are.”  Cody briefly leaned their foreheads together.  Then he turned to the bots.  “Rescue recruits, this is my oldest brother, Kade.  He’s the Chief of Spray Island Fire Department.

“Hiya,” Kade waved, far more relaxed and friendly than any Chief they had ever met.  “I was Heatwave’s partner until I was paralyzed during a rescue gone wrong.”

“Sir, uh,” Hoist raised his hand.  He continued when Kade nodded.  “It doesn’t sound like you blame Heatwave, so… why does he blame himself?”

“Heatwave made a mistake,” Kade answered after a moment’s thought.  “It _is_ his fault, in a purely cause and effect kind of way.  Mistakes happen, gravity happens, I don’t blame him because there is no blame.”  The recruits looked dubiously at him.  Kade shrugged.  “If there _were_ blame, it would be mine.”

“I don’t understand.”  Medix squinted.  “Heatwave has been a rescue bot far longer than you’ve been alive.”

Kade seemed to like shrugging.  “By like a million years.  But are there rocks on Cybertron?”

“Um, _no_.”  Hot Shot ended on a grunt when Wedge elbowed him.

Kade gave them an eyebrow.  “So, I have three times the experience clearing rock slides.  And home field advantage.”  This time Kade didn’t shrug, he lent his elbows on his knees.  “I could have told Heatwave not to touch the rocks, but I didn’t.  I wish I had, but I thought he was used to Earth.  _He_ thought he was used to Earth, and he was, he is, but it didn’t matter.”  Kade twisted the ring.  “Maybe it didn’t matter at all.  Moving that rock may have had nothing to do with it.”  Kade put his head in his hands.  “I thought I was over this.”

Chief Charlie Burns appeared, depositing a baby into Kade’s lap.  The Chief kissed Kade’s brow, then pressed their foreheads together, whispering.  He straightened and quickly waved to the recruits, then went to intercept a man with a flying camera.

“Ginna!” Kade cheered in a high-pitched voice, throwing his hands out wide.  The baby cooed, opening its arms as wide as they would go.  “How’s my baby girl?” he asked, picking her up beneath her arms and stabilizing her head with the tips of his fingers.  Kade’s hands were Cybertronianly huge on the infant.  He kissed her nose and she squealed, giggling with delight when he pretended to eat her ear.  He pressed their foreheads together.  “You come to rescue daddy, little girl?”

“Do they know what that means?” Wedge whispered, baffled by the repeated touching of helms among the humans.  Kade was _still_ muttering nonsense with his helm pressed to a _baby’s_.

A low coarse voice sighed behind them.  The recruits turned sharply.  A great silver bot settled himself on the grass.  “I suppose it will take Ratchet some time to fix such a small misconception.”  There was something terrifyingly familiar about this bot.

Kade smiled at the behemoth.  “That guy’s a trip.”  Finally, he settled his daughter in his lap.

The bot huffed a laugh, grinning permissively at the human.  “I fall for it every time.”

“Nice pun.”  Kade rolled closer, showing off his baby to the mammoth bot.  She was bald with a lace band around her head.  Her large gray eyes squinted in the sun as she reached out for the shiny bot before her.  “Megatron, right?” 

The recruits shuffled closer together, staring up at the deposed warlord in terror.

“Not anymore.”  He reached out to touch the baby, but Kade kept her just out of reach.

“She’s a bit small for that.  If you want a closer look, you’ll have to take us both.”  Megatron, and _Oh **Primus** Megatron_, carefully picked up the pair of humans.  “What should I call you?”

“I do not know.”  He brought the humans quite close to his face and Kade again showed him the baby.  “I named myself after Megatronus once, perhaps Fallen is the most appropriate thing.”  Behind him, and still some distance away, Optimus Prime stopped in his tracks.

Kade scoffed.  “That’s not a name, that’s an insult.”

Megatron smiled sadly.  “My point stands.”

“If Optimus can give you a second chance, I can give you a second name.”  Kade puffed up, settling his daughter in the crook of one arm.

“Presumptuous of you.”

“Eh,” Kade shrugged the shoulder not holding the baby.  “I’m a jerk.”

Megatron laughed suddenly.  He relaxed back on one hand, holding the humans at a more comfortable distance and smiling down on them.  “Fine.  What do you propose, fiery one?”

Kade appeared to think very hard.  “I managed to agree on a baby name with my wife.  How hard can this be?”  He looked critically at Megatron, as if seeing through to his spark.  “Hey, Graham!” he hollered, leaning over the edge of Megatron’s hand, who lurched forward as if to catch him.  Kade seemed perfectly secure on his perch.  Boulder’s partner turned, the other humans ignored them.  “What’s that thing they do to trashcans?”

Graham looked confused for a moment.  “Galvanization?” he called back, clearly guessing.

“That’s it!”  Kade flopped back onto his butt, grinning proudly up at the former warlord, completely at ease.  “How about… Galvatron?”

Megatron appeared pleasantly surprised.  “I must ask my conjunx.  After all, Soundwave will use it more than I.”

Optimus finally approached.  He knelt next to the silver bot, placing a hand on his shoulder.  “I think it is a good name.  You should,” his tone changed, testing a human idiom, “try it on for size.”

Kade laughed inappropriately hard.  The two ancient bots looked askance at him.  The man shook his head, waving them off.  “Sorry, sorry.  Just pictured you trying to wear a trashcan, Gordon the Grump style.”

The Prime’s gentle smile was at its most mischievous.  Megatron appeared truly nonplussed.  After a moment, he leaned over, whispering to Optimus, “What is a ‘trashcan’?”

Kade snorted back into laughter, laying the baby across his chest when she started to fuss.  Optimus quietly replied, “I will show you later, _Galvatron_.”  The name sounded uncomfortable in his mouth, but Optimus was smiling.

“Did you know there’s a statue of your scout impaling me on this planet?”  It was some sort of challenge.

“Have you seen the one in Kaon?”  Optimus held out his hand, a holochip coming to life.  It displayed a statue: Bumblebee driving a giant sword into Megatron’s deactivated chest, Galvatron himself stepping back, standing tall over his previous life.  “They call it the Risen.”  He held Galvatron’s gaze.  “You, not Bumblebee.”

“Sounds Primely to me,” Kade declared offhandedly, allowing his daughter to suck on his finger.  “If you don’t mind, she needs a feed.”  Galvatron nudged Optimus helplessly.  The Prime carefully placed the man back on his wheelchair.  Kade rolled away, calling over his shoulder, “Later taters!”

“What a strange person,” Medix observed. 

Mid-stride, Heatwave scooped up the redhead in his palm, daughter, wheelchair, and all.  Kade’s bright laugh echoed above the rumble of Heatwave’s chuckles.

“Crazy is more like it,” Wedge countered.

“I like him!”

“You like everyone, Whirl.”  Medix turned to the older bots.  “Sirs?  Excuse me, but… why are you here?”

Optimus smiled.  “That is a long story, indeed.”

Galvatron sat forward studiously.  “How are your studies?”  The recruits gaped at him, then all started talking at once.


End file.
